photo-litko



H. HERRICK, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

PIANOFORTE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 1,379, dated October 26, 1839.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, HIRAM I-IERRICK, of the city of New York, in theState of New York, have invented an Improvement in the Manner ofConstructing the Action of Pianofortes, by means of which improvementthe touch is rendered much more smooth and easy than upon any of thevarious plans heretofore adopted and the liability to get out of orderis much diminished; and I hereby declare that the following is a fulland exact description thereof.

The principal improvement in my pianoforte action consists in the mannerin which I cause the jack, lever, or fly, to act upon the small, orhammer, butt; by which arrangement I am enabled to employ it withoutusing either an under hammer, a regulating screw, or a wedge, one orother of which has been employed in all the actions hitherto in use. Inall other actions also, the lever, or jack, as it acts upon the hammerbutt, in causing the hammer to strike the string recedes from thecenter, or fulcrum, of the hinge butt upon which the hammer turns, andconsequently acts upon its with a power which is constantly decreasing.In my action, on the contrary, the power of the lever, or jack, iscontinually increasing during the continuance of its action upon thehammer, as its motion is toward the fulcrum of the hammer, until itdisengages itself from the hammer butt, by its own motion, occasioned bythe depression of the key; the gain of power by this device amounts to,at least, one third, and the touch is consequently rendered much moreeasy and efficient than usual.

In the accompanying drawing, A, A, is one of the keys of a piano-forte.

B, is the lever, jack, or ily, and C, the lever bottom to which it ishinged. b D, is the hammer butt, and E, the hinge utt.

F, is a block attached to the lever bottom, which receives a screw G, bywhich the bearing of the thin side a, of the block Gr, against the jack,may be regulated, the block being split, or divided, for that purpose.

The regulating screw ordinarily used in pianoforte actions is dispensedwith; that just described, and those in the lever bottom, being all thatare required.

H, is a wire spring which bears against the front of the ack.

From the foregoing description, the characteristic difference betweenthis and all other pianoforte actions will be manifest. Bv thedepression of the key A, in the act of playing, the jack is broughtforward toward the fulcrum of the hammer, and when it is relieved fromthe hammer butt, the jack is borne against the front corner of it by thespring H, and the too rapid fall of the hammer is prevented, to theextent of the strength of the spring. The height of the jack isregulated by the screws of the lever bottom, operating in the ordinaryway.

Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The particular manner in which I have arranged the fly, or jack inreference to the hammer butt, so that by the depression of the key saidfly or jack shall approach the forward end of the hammer butt, andfinally escape in front of it.

HIRAM HERRICK.

Witnesses:

Trios. P. JONES, GEORGE WEST.

